Vetitum Amoris
by HadenXCharm
Summary: Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see - A love between their people was a love that could not be - This dragon's child however, was so lovesick for an elf, that he traveled to the edge of Earth to keep him for himself. Draconem!Ikkaku/Elf!Yumichika AU
1. Chapter 1

AN - I hope you guys enjoy my crazy AUs, because I sure do. If you'd like to know more about this particular story, you can do so by reading my most recent profile update, where I talk about how this story idea got kind of warped.

**Warning: TRIGGER WARNING - This story contains dubious consent/borderline rape, along with interspecies 'mating'**

Draconem!Ikkaku, Elf!Yumichika

One last thing - I illustrated this story and you can view the pictures on the archive of our own website~

Please enjoy!

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><p>Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,<br>A love between their people was a love that could not be,

The elf knew well his only option here was fold his hand  
>For he was deeply lost inside the fire kingdom's land.<p>

He knew escape was futile, now an 'it' and not a 'he',  
>He took the dragon's deal, the only way he'd be set free.<p>

To bargain with a dragon is to bargain with the devil,  
>But as long as the elf agrees the terms, the playing field is level.<p>

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><p><em>. 1 .~ Carpe Diem ~. 1 .<em>

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><p>"Step lively. The males of this wretched species are <em>extremely<em> hostile."

Those were the last elvish words Yumichika would ever hear.

Or so he thought, because here he was being gagged, dragged along, and beaten viciously by the very creatures of which his companions had spoken of. _Dracuni_. The odds of his escape were slim to none, now that he'd been seperated and captured by the horrible mountain serpent's kin.

They were fearsome _loathsome_ beasts of filth and violence; Bastard, mutant children of dragons that had been banished to the mountains and volcanos, and were cursed to live in wretched winglessness. Yumichika had also heard that they were kin of raptors and sea serpents, and maybe lamia or troll or even goblin. They were horrid, half-bred, brutish abominations that should never have come into being, and they lived without a shred of mercy in their dark souls, that of which may not even exist.

Yumichika had outlived the wretched birth of their bastardized race, and he had hated them from the very beginning, along with the rest of his elven brethren. They'd been the result of lustful roll-abouts of creatures that were never meant to breed, and were as stupid and violent and hellish as any an enlightened soul could imagine.

The dracuni race were tall, all taller than him by at least a foot and a half, all much too strong and too scaly and too hard and rough and mean. All with tails and spines and spikes and fangs and too many sharp unforgiving edges. They were hairless, like reptiles, but some had fine spikes or needles on their heads like porcupines, and it almost resembled hair. Some had precious gems or gold jammed into their bodies as armor or to replace lost scales or even fangs. Their claws and their teeth were like knives, and their eyes like lava, and their mouths like a furnace of foul language and intense heat. Reptilian tails that were much too long and powerful trailed behind them, and their faces and bodies had unique tribal markings or slits like gills to let some heat out of their wretched burning souls.

They had soul-flames like dragons and other hell-bound creatures, which made them extremely powerful, but laughably easy to kill. Should the beasts ever be tricked into taking a drink, a large enough drink to put out the flame, they would quickly perish, going cold, sick, weak. Similarly, if they were ever to fall into the sea, or if they were foolish enough to open their mouths to the rain, they could quite easily be sent back to hell.

But here, in fire country, the chances were still slim to none, and Yumichika was losing hope.

Yumichika didn't like it here; he didn't like it at all. Their camp was too hot – too hot to even _see_ through what with the waves of heat rising from the very living mountain. It was stifling, without a breeze to be had, and their touch was burning him all over, as if their collective rage had filled the air and charged it with hatred until it was too thick to breathe through.

If only he'd run faster, if only he'd jumped into the river and escaped, for dracuni disliked descending too far from their mountain into the woods when they weren't hunting.

They were all so big and scaly and loud; it was like an entire village full of violent criminals, and it was so hot here, much too hot for his delicate elvish skin and lungs. The smell of smoke was everywhere, and he could hardly open his eyes there was so much ash floating around.

He could see them fighting each other in the distance – he could see them roasting animals on spits, some still alive as they were burned alive or eaten half-cooked. The big brutes fought amongst each other, swearing up a storm and hissing, circling each other as the argued over treasure. Yumichika knew he was in serious trouble.

Surely they would eat him alive like in their elven storybooks, like he'd heard when he was a child long ago. A draconem warrior would crunch his bones and munch his meat, it would tear him apart and floss its teeth with his intestines. They would brutally tease him and torture him and rape him and sell him as a slave. The dracuni_hated_ elves, and the elves felt similarily towards the uncouth beasts.

Stupid violent ruffians. At least their ancestors, the dragons, were _smart_. Dragons could read, speak in rhyme, tell riddles, and _fly, _while all these heathens were good for was destroying villages, stealing sheep and gold, and killing each other better than anyone else could_._ It wasn't any wonder that the dragons had cast out these freaks centuries ago. Who would want _them_ around? Hell, the dracuni didn't even really like each other.

They kicked him and beat him; they trampled him underfoot, cursing him with their hatefulness and sneers. Their language was thick and sharp, full of heat and malice, and it grated against Yumichika's ears like rusty nails; he was accustomed to beautiful smooth voices that were perfect for singing. Everything was wrong. He was going to die here; his life was over, and he was still so young too, even though he'd lived far longer than any human could ever dream. By elvish standards, he had a lot of life left to live, for he was immortal if left to his own devices.

He hated the way his captor gripped his hair close to the scalp, shaking him violently, and he hated how passersby would hit him with rocks or spit boiling oil onto him, and he hated the rough, burnt ground underneath his bare feet. He hated knowing that he was going to die, and that there was no chance that any of them would show him mercy. Most of all, he hated that the hateful, repressive, heated air here had seeped into him and made him bitter and spiteful, just like his enemies.

Yumichika shed tears of despair, never even imagining that these fiends would be foolish enough to give him a chance to escape.

But his chance came just the same, and he took it.

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><p>"Gotcha! <em>Hah!<em>" Ikkaku laughed, nabbing the thing he'd heard rustling in the bushes, hoping for a deer.

"Let me go, you filthy brute!" came a shriek, and a few flicks against his ruby-heart as the elf beat its fists against his chest. Little weakling; he'd hardly even felt that.

"Oh," Ikkaku hissed, crouching down to look into his find's face, powerful tail lashing against a tree, "It's just an ugly little elf… Hey, you're that one they captured earlier, aren't you," he said in latin, or 'all-speak', the universal language of all creatures, sans humankind.

The dirty weak little thing tugged against his grip desperately, panting, eyes crazed and terrified. The elf cursed him in the elegant, eloquent, rather _beautiful_ elven language. This must be the one. He'd never seen an elf so grubby and bashed up; it had obviously escaped from their camp. Renji had been really excited earlier, telling him that they'd captured an elf, but Ikkaku hadn't gone to check, because he'd thought that the weakling would die before he got there, already caving under the others' torture.

"Tch', I have no earthly idea of what Renji sees in your craven types anyways," he lied, in denial of how curious and intrigued he felt that he had captured such a beautiful defiant little thing.

It wasn't the lack of Ikkaku's grip that allowed the elf to escape, it was the slippery smooth flesh that the elf had in place of rough scales. Ikkaku suddenly realized what he was touching and how soft and squishy it was. Oh gross, it was like its tissue parts were on the outside. Was it _inside out? _Oh yuck, it was like touching something's guts.

Ikkaku grimaced, even though the elf was beautiful; he hadn't expected it to feel like that. He'd never touched an elf before, or a human for that matter, and they seemed to have the same fleshy weakness with its armor on the inside. He supposed that the feeling wasn't _that_ disgusting; it had just surprised him.

He only needed to walk after it as it ran from him frantically through the thick woods, dodging tree branches and tearing ass like the devil was after it, and perhaps it was.

Ikkaku nabbed it again around its middle, picking it up by its clothes to dangle it in front of his face. It must've thought he was going to bite its head off, because it started kicking and screaming at the top of its lungs, nearly causing him to drop it as he hit it in the face to make it stop. "Where are you trying to go in such a hurry? Your family abandoned you," he hissed, flicking his tongue at the elf, who tried to punch him, scowling as it was held too far out of range. "You live with our family now, see? So ungrateful,"

"Don't _speak_ to me, you arrant fool," the elf hissed at him, maintaining its pride, not begging for mercy like Ikkaku had expected it to. "You are a filthy piece of-" it panted as Ikkaku set it down on its feet with a scowl, grabbing its arm in a bone-crushing grip. Ikkaku was impressed that the stupid weakling hadn't resorted to blubbering or bribery; sneaky bastards, elves were. "You demonic… blasphemous… _Let go!" _it shouted as it wrenched its arm in Ikkaku's grip, hitting him on the chest.

"What are you, huh? I can't seem to tell what you are." Ikkaku sniffed at it as it beat on his chest, intrigued by its flowery, woodsy smell. Not even a hint of ash or slate from the mountain's heart. He'd never gotten this close to an elf before. He felt like playing with it, because it obviously couldn't escape or hurt him, "You can't be an elf, can you? Elves are smug, arrogant, selfish, tricky-"

"What are you talking about, you big, stupid, ugly-"

Ikkaku grabbed it by the soft spines it had on its head, and it immediately cried out in pain. Again, he was surprised by the feel of its body. This part wasn't soft and fleshy like the inside of a deer, however. This was soft and smooth, similar to how water felt, but not as deadly. These spikes were even finer and thinner than the ones on Renji's head. Wow, it was so silky. It was even softer than the spikes on a deer's pelt.

It whined in pain, trying to get free. Such a fragile little weakling. "Who are you calling ugly, you fleshy weirdo? You're in fire country!" The elf hissed that it was _dragon's_ country, but that just pissed Ikkaku off. Those bastard dragons. Big jerks.

"I am considered extraordinarily beautiful by my people's standards," the elf hissed haughtily, "and by my own." Of course, Ikkaku agreed with it, _God_ did he agree with it, but he hated that entitled snobby attitude that was characteristic of elves. Know-it-all, cheating, magic-stealing snobs. That's what they were. Even _this_elf probably.

Ikkaku laughed cruelly, shaking it by its water-like spines, "Heh. Look at'cha'. No scales. Flimsy claws. Yer' fangs are dull. No markings? Your outside is the color of clouds, and you're so fleshy that you are a walking target. Your people look naked ta' me, even under your stupid clothing. Your soft parts are on the outside; disgusting _weak _things, elves."

The elf gave a high laugh, giving him that haughty elven arrogance that Ikkaku hated with a passion, but oh, how he loved how brave this elf was to stand up to him. Some part of his black heart admired it and wanted it in his treasure collection. "The dracuni charging into battle are about as subtle as a boulder tumbling down a mountainside. You all only hate us, because you wish you had our treasu-"

Ikkaku dragged it through the woods by the hair, having to stoop a little, being much bigger and taller than the bratty little thing. "C'mon now, back into your cage, you piece of meat, and we'll see how brave you can talk _then._" Truth be told, he was impressed by the little thing's bravery. It really had some nerve, talking back to him, and he kind of liked its spirit.

"No, _no_," it cried, digging its heels in, efforts to escape its impending disembowelment futile, "Don't take me back there, please, spare me! I'll do anything!"

Ikkaku stopped, looking down at it, large molten eyes blinking at its white fleshy face and its long soft spines. Suddenly he felt something akin to compassion for the craven little fucker. It reminded him of when he had been young, a little broodling, looking to the elders for help or food, looking to them with hope for kindness. They had sneered and chased him away. The elf was giving him that same look, filled with hope for escape, filled with a want for a life that was being taken away.

"Are you trying to bargain with me? You want to make a deal?" He didn't _really_ want to take it back there and watch the pretty thing get torn apart like many before. Like with precious gems and gold, dracuni were extremely selfish, and Ikkaku didn't even want anyone to _look_ at his treasure, which now extended to the elf he'd just caught. This was _his_ find, and he didn't want to share a single bit of it.

He could protect it out here in the woods, prove his strength and ability, and maybe the elf would like him and stay with him. They could have an egg together. Ikkaku had always wanted an egg. They could find a cave to put treasure in and live in, and he could leave this wretched hellhole and all the jerks in his tribe. Surely the elf was mad at its tribe or family too, for abandoning it here to be captured?

Perhaps this was just Ikkaku's desperation to escape his brutish, violent kin. Perhaps it was just his want for something other than hatefulness, but he felt a strong desire to take the elf somewhere and do things that he'd rather not speak aloud. It was that wretched elven magic surely, making him feel this heat where he wasn't supposed to be. He was a freak, a perverted freak among his kind, to feel such impure thoughts towards what should look ugly to his golden eyes. But being an outcast meant that they wouldn't miss him, and he could be happy – it wasn't as if the elf could say no either. No, he wouldn't let it run away now.

"Would you like to make a deal?" he hated how much he sounded like a dragon, like a dragon spinning riddles and weaving lies, acting like they were giving their prey a fighting chance, when really they were flying circles around them like a vulture.

"What… Kind of deal," it asked warily, seeming to be pleased that he had stopped dragging it.

"Let me lie with you," Ikkaku said, tail swiping behind him. Surely the elf could see he was suitable and strong. Of _course_ it would agree. "I always thought elves were pretty. Our egg will be golden like treasure, probably," he said eagerly, hoping the elf would agree to let him mount it. It gave him a horrified look of pure disgust and revulsion, and as he tried to convince it, it threw up in the grass. Perhaps he had been too brutish in his approach, or maybe it thought he wouldn't be a suitable mate, so he tried again, trying to make it see reason.

"Something's wrong with you," it coughed out as it wretched, little body shaking, convulsing still. "You should think me ugly, like you said before. Spare me your cruel taunts and your lies that you would ever carry out the terms of a deal. I am _ugly _to your eyes."

"No, no, you'll be perfect, you'll make a strong beautiful egg," Ikkaku said, trying to reassure it that this was a good idea.

It was a shame that the elf knew as few facts about dracuni as Ikkaku knew about elves; maybe then, they could have come to an understanding. "You dracuni are just like they say. Lustful, and evil, and merciless-" The elf didn't know that as a draconem, Ikkaku was far from a lustful creature, and likewise, Ikkaku didn't understand the ways of elves when it came to mating. Hell, he didn't even understand the mating ways of his_own_ people, really.

"I'll let you go free," he bribed, and eventually the elf agreed, skin having turned grey and clammy. Ikkaku grinned, baring his fangs and picking it up as carefully as he could, not wanting to squish it now that he was going to get a chance to mate with it and have an egg. He knew elves were supposed to be fragile.

He was still rather young, and had never mated before, something that was only accomplished by the biggest and strongest males of his kind. His people hated copulation – for it was said to be extremely painful – and they only mated to continue their race, not for love or pleasure. For this reason, their women were quite vicious in defending themselves, and not many of the men attempted to woo them, because nobody liked their young: small and annoying and disobedient, and particularly chewy. The only particular time they would engage in coitus, would be after a war when their numbers were down.

He knew it was strange, as his people despised the elvish, having a long-held grudge against them just as the elvish held likewise. Elves were ugly by his people's standards, but he and his friend Renji found them exotically beautiful, with a certain intelligent charm. They'd always been strange; Ikkaku had yet to actually admit to Renji that he agreed with him and his odd way of wanting to know about elves.

Perhaps it was jealousy that caused their race to hate elves. They hated that they knew things, they hated their good fortune and happiness and singing. They hated that they were wealthy and prosperous, and they hated that they were immortal.

Their people didn't want offspring, didn't even want _each other_, and they disliked the elves way of acting as if they knew everything; Haughty, sneaky, conniving things with little resilience in the face of adversity, which draconem bore with.

It wasn't strange to see little corpses littering their nomadic campsites. Children were not cherished or celebrated, but cursed and loathed, cast out from the groups and forced to get food for themselves, so that only the strongest would survive.

However, _Ikkaku _had always wanted an egg.

He put his arm around its middle and pulled it towards his armpit as he walked through the woods to find a suitable spot to copulate. Its frail skinny limbs just hung down, and the creature just moped to itself for a while.

They came to a river, which obviously a child of fire such as he could not simply wade through, so as a feat of strength, which was sometimes part of the dracuni courting ritual, Ikkaku knocked a tree down to make a bridge for him and his new mate to cross.

"What do elvish eggs look like," he wondered aloud to himself, but the creature didn't answer him and just let it drag him around, looking pitiful. "You look fertile to me. Our egg will be beautiful," he mumbled, already thinking about guarding it and making it a nest out of his hoard of treasure. Their egg would have the best of both of them; it would be beautiful _and_ strong.

"You dracuni mate like monsters," the elf said, grey in the face again, looking like it was about to vomit once more, "You'll crush me,"

"I will take care," Ikkaku hissed, tail taking a swipe behind him as he searched for a spot with grass and sunlight, perhaps surrounded with brambles. "That would hurt the egg, wouldn't it," he mumbled, finally releasing his small mate. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to mate with such a scrawny being; their offspring might be weak and small like its elven ancestors. But then again, he'd seen that most elves were about this size. _He_ was the giant, because elves were taller than humans were.

"Do you think our egg will be immortal?" he inquired curiously, pushing the elf down in the grass. It didn't seem to know what he was trying to make it do, so he had to bend it around and try to manipulate its fragile body into how he'd seen his kind copulate.

He could feel heat boiling in his gut, his lust mode causing his breath to grow dry and hot, sparks leaving his mouth as his inner flame was set ablaze. Eventually he got his mate to push its chest on the ground with its rear in the air. He consciously tried to be gentle, knowing from Renji that elves were immortal, but they were also fragile and rather ethereal.

He hadn't realized how rough he was being until he heard his elf's whimpers and hisses of pain as he touched it. He had thought he was being gentle, not realizing how much brute strength his people possessed in comparison to the elvish. So he dialed what he considered gentle back about twenty ticks, trying again.

"You're going to be my mate, so tell me your name," he tried to ask nicely, being overcome by heat, want, and a desire to orgasm, but he tried to keep a modicum of control. He'd seen_ dragons _mate, those cruel wicked bastards, and it didn't want to descend into the mindless lust that he, as a draconem, had also been cursed with. If dragons got too out of control, they could destroy vast areas of land with fire and violence. He hated dragons, just as dragons hated them, and he didn't want to turn into a bully and hurt his mate and his baby.

"Hm? What name have you?" he gasped out, more sparks passing his teeth as the dormant hatch in his throat opened up. Dragons held this too, to breathe fire. The dracuni couldn't breathe fire, but they _could _set them in a sense by breathing the heat of the flames rather than the flames themselves. Now, in his lust mode, he could feel the intense heat creeping up his throat, begging to be released along with the fertilization process.

"Yumichika," the pretty thing whispered, sounding terrified, but it did not move from the position he'd put it in, keeping its word and not trying to run away. He tried to pat its back as he hulked over its little body, getting on top of it to ready himself.

"That is a pretty name. I am Ikkaku. I'll protect our egg very well," he promised, hoping that would sweeten the deal for his little mate. A draconic-elven hybrid would likely be quite a handful to take care of, so Ikkaku would be kind and hatch the egg and take care of their fledgling.

Yumichika began to cry and shake as he got into position behind it.

"What is that noise you're making? _Hh_, oh no, you're leaking!" Ikkaku then recognized that those were tears, just like how humans wept, "Why do you cry this way? What is the matter?"

"I'm afraid," Yumichika hiccupped, beginning to cry harder. Ikkaku began growling deeply, opening the hatch in his throat to give a threatening hiss that dracuni used to guard territory. They couldn't breathe fire or fly like dragons, but they had a flame within them as creatures of hell do, and could still set fires with the boiling hot vapor of their inner furnace. He'd burn his opponent, making sure that it would leave and not come to lay eyes on his spoils.

"What has frightened you?" he asked, still growling deep in his throat, circling his mate menacingly as he looked around for any wolves or anything that might scare an elf. All the while, he was fighting urges to completely go into heat and fertilize their egg; he couldn't wait much longer.

Yumichika just sniffled pathetically, hiding his face. When Ikkaku concluded that there was no threat near, he approached his mate again, biting at its neck with a happy noise.

"Do not fear; I will take care not to hurt our egg. I know how to mate," Ikkaku said eagerly, even if that wasn't _quite _true. He didn't realize that the elf meant that it was afraid that he would harm _it_ and not the 'egg' during their mating, but then again, Ikkaku didn't realize a lot of other things here either, one being the fact that he didn't realize that elves didn't lay eggs, and that fully-formed eggs themselves didn't just reside in the host's body before the fertilization. "I will take care not to crush you and damage our egg, Yumichika," he reassured again, trying to mount the elf that was too small for him, intense heat returning, driving rational thought from his mind. "You are very small, aren't you?"

The delirious lust that occurred when dracuni go into heat was taking him over, and he began rutting awkwardly against his small mate like how he'd seen others in his tribe do, not really knowing what he was doing, as it was his first time trying to mate. _Oh_, but it felt good, it felt so nice, and he wondered why mating was said to be so painful. He held his elf's upper body to the ground with a scaled and spiked arm, getting an intense urge to bite the scruff of its neck. He exhaled sparks, making noises of pleasure, listening to the elf-

He slowed down, some rational thought returning. It sounded like it was in pain, and it was still crying. "Shall I go slowlier? Am I hurting the egg?" he asked, head woozy from the intense heat, tongue going molten from the fire traveling up his throat.

Yumichika was limp under him, panting feverishly, whining in pain. Elves were said to have incredible pain tolerance despite their fragility, so Ikkaku frowned, wondering if he was hurting it that badly. Ikkaku noted red patches on the fleshy scale and spine free back of his mate, wondering if it was breaking out in a rash or something. If Yumichika was hurting then it might not work – didn't they both have to be in lust? He didn't know much about elves like Renji did, so he didn't know what to do to help it feel good for Yumichika. Maybe elves needed to be touched with more care – he knew more about humans than elves, and humans seemed to be more like elves than dracuni were at any rate. When they were out pillaging towns and stealing sheep, he'd seen humans do this thing with their mouths, touching each other's faces and mouths.

He tried this in the middle of the elf's back, and it made a noise. Ikkaku saw that another red spot had been left behind. He panted, bucking his hips, trying to rut to fill the intense urges that were going through him. He awkwardly curled his body over his small mate, taking a protective stance above it, trying to push deep so he could get closer to the egg. Ikkaku wondered why his people disliked mating; it felt so amazing, so cool and smooth inside. Yumichika was so soft and pliant and sweet-smelling beneath him, and everything spoken with that elven voice was music in his ears. It was wonderful, giving him surges of affection for his new mate; he began to feel attached, and he knew that that was not normal for a draconem either.

He touched his mate all over, loving the glossy, soft feeling of its vulnerable skin. The elf seemed to revile in his touch, for it cried out and shuddered, begging him to stop.

"Please take it out," Yumichika pleaded, begging for mercy, crying to him that it was burning, that it was on fire.

Ikkaku couldn't control his movements, every instinct telling him to keep rutting until he fertilized his new egg. He staggered, gasping, biting the back of Yumichika's neck as he shoved deep inside to release his semen as close to his egg as possible. Immediately, Yumichika screamed at the top of its lungs, limp body gaining new strength as it writhed and wailed in pain. Still in the grips of satisfaction and bliss, Ikkaku released it with an awe-filled moan, stumbling a little as he withdrew, covering himself up.

It was rolling around in the dirt, scrabbling at its backside, saying that there was fire and begging him to put it out. Yumichika then stiffened up in absolute pain, muscles locked and frozen, screaming at the top of his lungs, shaking all over.

Ikkaku panicked a little, thinking that he'd been too rough – he hadn't thought he was being rough, but maybe it was too much for an elf – maybe he was too big and heavy. Maybe he'd broken the egg and the dead child of fire was burning Yumichika from the inside out. He grabbed Yumichika by the arms and rushed with it over to the river they had crossed, dangling its legs and lower body down into the water, trying not to let much of it touch his own skin.

Yumichika sobbed, going completely boneless other than struggling to push out his sperm. It begged him to let go and let it drown, but Ikkaku wouldn't let go. He wanted his egg, and he still wanted his new mate even if the egg had been destroyed; he hoped they were okay, he really hadn't meant to hurt them.

Ikkaku realized, as he dragged Yumichika out of the river, that there was something red and wet on his hands. He freaked out a little, not accustomed to liquids touching his scales. It made him skittish. He would die if his fire was put out.

But this was not the cool, clear water; this liquid was red and warm and thick, and it was coming from Yumichika. Oh no, oh no, he _had_ broken the egg; his egg must have been damaged and his baby had died. Maybe he'd lain on Yumichika too much and crushed it against the ground.

Yumichika was limp in the grass, not moving or responding to any further stimulus. Its eyes were open, but they were frozen and dark, clouded with grief and despair. Ikkaku decided that he should take it back to elven lands, so that maybe they could fix it up and maybe still save their egg.

He treaded far into forbidden territory, guiltily laying his broken mate down underneath a nice shady tree, covering it with some long grass and some nice leaves. Hopefully someone would find it and fix it up with their loathsome, sneaky, elven magic.

He pressed his mouth on Yumichika's face one last time, not realizing that the red marks left behind were burns, and that he'd made a terrible mistake in trying to mate with an elf, _especially_ this elf.

"I'll come back to check on you, sweetling. And we can try again maybe," he promised, caressing its smooth skin one last time, folding its blood-sticky silken clothing over its soft parts. He hoped it wouldn't be sad that their baby had died – Renji had told him that elves could die from being too sad for too long.

He smelled his mate for a few minutes, sniffing at its sweet hair, trying to commit the scent to memory so he could find it again tomorrow. Hopefully Yumichika would come back to him now that they were mates.

It was a shame Ikkaku was so naïve, that he hadn't been more careful, or even that he hadn't brought Yumichika straight to Renji for help. It was a shame that any of this had ever happened.

The last reason draconem despised mating, besides the pain and the annoying offspring it produced, was because they were incredibly vain and selfish creatures, and mating awoke care and emotion within them.

* * *

><p><em>~ Semper Fidelis ~<em>

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><p>The prince's desperate gamble left it lifeless, torn asunder,<br>and his only hope for life now was the beast who'd held him under.  
>His lucky star decreed the dragon saw him as its plunder,<br>and that things still get worse from here, it isn't any wonder.


	2. Chapter 2

Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,  
>A love between their people was a love that could not be,<p>

The elf that should be dead now, was just barely hanging on,  
>For it held its kingdom's crown, should have held it all along.<p>

Dracuni love is seldom found, but loyalty you'll find,  
>it really has no equal, greater love of any kind<p>

Elven souls are bound by duty, trust and faith and love,  
>Grief will send them to their graves, and happiness above.<p>

* * *

><p><em>. 2 .~ Rigor Mortis ~. 2 .<em>

* * *

><p>"You what?" Renji roared, red spines bristling.<p>

"Yes, yes, isn't it great? I can finally leave this place!" Ikkaku said excitedly, eager enough to go right now, even if it meant leaving his treasure horde behind and starting fresh. He didn't even care if this was dragon-like, to become a hermit and collect his spoils for no one but himself.

"No, no, no, go back, go back, what did you do to it? You said you _mated_ with an elf?"

"Yes, I asked it and it agreed," Ikkaku said proudly, knowing that Renji was probably dying of jealousy. Renji put his head in his hands, sighing, sitting there in silence for a few minutes.

"You never listen to me, do you?" Renji asked flatly. Ikkaku cringed guiltily. Renji was always talking about elves non-stop, because no one else would listen to him except Ikkaku. That being said, Ikkaku still didn't know nearly as much about elves as Renji did – Renji had some sort of debt to the elven king and longed to overthrow him, and so had devoted his life to studying the race to get an advantage.

"Ugh, you stupid fool," Ikkaku frowned at Renji, not understanding what he was upset about. Maybe Renji had wanted the elf instead, and he'd swiped it away on accident. "How did it look when you left it?"

"It wasn't talking or moving anymore," he said with worry. "I think I hurt our egg."

"Your _egg?_ What are you _talking_ about, elves don't lay _eggs_, you stupid asshole! They're nothing_ like_ us!" Renji was truly stunned by Ikkaku's foolishness. Not only had he mated with an outsider, he had to choose one of their enemies, _and_ without knowing the proper way to go about such a thing. Good gods, Ikkaku, shame and dragon fire upon you.

"Well what the hell do they lay then?!" Ikkaku shouted back at him, "What, does the elfling just come out without a shell?"

"YES, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!" Renji yelled in frustration, eyes red, rubies set around his cheeks glittering menacingly as he heated up. "You don't understand the first thing about elves, what the hell are you doing trying to _mate_ with one? You're so _stupid,_ Ikkaku, it was bleeding like that cause' you _hurt_ it."

"I hurt the e- I hurt its little one?"

"No, you hurt it. You broke it. You're way too big to do that to an elf, you probably _killed_ it!"

"What?! Oh no," he fretted, "Maybe I should go back and take care of it, I left it in the elven territory."

"Ugh, you big dope," Renji whined, shoving him down, not commenting on the fact that Ikkaku shouldn't even care; Dracuni were selfish, cruel beasts, and Renji was no exception. "Just sit down and listen so you can fix this stupid mess. It'll probably be dead by the time you get back there, and if not, it'll be really sick."

"I thought elves couldn't get sick," Ikkaku said glumly, imagining his poor little mate all alone in the woods, dying, because he'd been such a stupid fool.

"They don't, really… They're immortal, but they can die of grief… or sorrow, or battle. We're more physical creatures whilst they are more emotional," Renji explained, still extremely upset that Ikkaku had hurt one of the beings that he had admired and learned about for so long. "Their happiness is their livelihood, you hear em' singing an' shit all the time when we're out in the hills. They're always dancing and story telling and are never sad. Their happiness is their fucking livelihood. That's why if you _rape_ em' like that, they _die._ It's the curse of their immortality." Ikkaku became more and more dismayed.

"When you live to be that old, you get a really deep sense of self-awareness, and you grow to be connected with the world - can you imagine what dreams and memories would be like if you've seen everything since the Sin War and beyond?" Ikkaku shook his head. "Just- Ugh! If something horribly devastating happens to someone like that, they are just _destroyed!_ They lose their sense of self and their reason to live or something. They get so distraught that their soul just fucking _leaves._"

Ikkaku looked down at his feet, moping miserably, "Aw man… I wish I wouldn't have done that. I feel terrible."

"Elves only get sick if they're on the verge of death but have some sort of reason to live, like a child or a promise to a lover or an important duty or something like that."

"How do they get unsick?"

"I don't know," Renji said woefully, growling to himself in frustration. "Elves only fall in love once, and they're completely monogamous, and they do something called…. 'marrying', I think. Now that you've defiled it so, you'd better hope it doesn't have another lover, or it'll probably die."

"Should I go back and get it?"

"No," Renji moaned, peeking out of his cave, "Everyone's still pissed and looking for it. They're raising hell out there, probably going to burn the whole mountainside just because. We're leavin' ta' move tomorrow besides."

Ikkaku frowned miserably, tail swiping around on the stone floor in anxiety. He hadn't known. He really hadn't meant to hurt the poor little thing. What kind of big jerk was he? Just like a fucking dragon. He couldn't have turned into a bully like that, he just couldn't.

Renji advised that he go check on it, but not to bring it back to the camp, and that it was better off in the forest, where it drew its power.

When Ikkaku finally returned to the spot where he'd laid the elf, it was gone, and he tracked its scent for many miles before he found it strewn on a rocky hillside, spread-eagled in a field.

Its hair was cut short and it was dirty, wearing tattered rags, beaten up all over. Ikkaku began growling, sniffing all over Yumichika and the surrounding area. It smelled of elves, nasty elves, and it burned his nose.

He nudged Yumichika a few times, making a rumbling noise deep in his throat. Its soft skin was so cold and wet, causing Ikkaku to pull back in alarm as he realized that the elf was soaked in dirty water.

He began to whine pitifully, nudging at Yumichika, trying to wake it up by talking to him in dragon's language – it was _extremely_ annoying to elves, so it would surely awaken it. Yumichika moved a little, limbs crooked like they were broken.

"Awaken," Ikkaku demanded weakly, still shoving at it to try to make it get up. Yumichika's eyes opened a little, bleary and distant, before they blinked a few times, drifting closed.

"Leave me," it whispered in all-speak.

"Who has harmed you," Ikkaku growled, baring his teeth, mouth ablaze with flame as he circled Yumichika menacingly, tail swiping. "I'll… I'll bite them," he snapped in rage.

"Don't… become angry," Yumichika said so softly that it was really scaring Ikkaku badly. "Don't… hurt the forest…" Ikkaku consciously calmed down, closing the hatch in his throat to keep from catching fire to the tall grass.

"I'm angry, someone hurt my mate," he raged through gritted fangs.

"Mates…" Yumichika smiled a little, eyes closing, face becoming wet with tired tears. "You are foolish," it whispered. "There is no egg," it tried to say, telling him that there wasn't a baby or a dragonling or whatever dracuni spawn. It told him that there wasn't any need for him to stay and protect it, because there weren't any progeny like Ikkaku had thought. "I am male, don't you understand, you silly dragon's filth…" it rasped, eyes sad and cold.

"I know there's no egg," Ikkaku said in disappointment, a little embarrassed that it hadn't occurred to him that elves had differentiated genders – they had all looked rather androgynous to him, so it just hadn't occurred to him. Despite this, he still stubbornly stuck to the fact that they had mated and were partnered now. "Renji says elves mate for life. You are my mate, and someone hurt you. I'll hurt them; I'll hurt them badly. They'd best stay away and not come back, or I'll hurt them."

Yumichika smiled sadly, still not moving from where it – no… from where _he_ was lying broken, "You think I'm your mate? Your lifetime is the blink of an eye to me… You are like a _child_. What is a hundred years to the elven?"

"Who hurt you this way, Yumichika," Ikkaku asked angrily, growing almost panicked. Yumichika hadn't moved much, and his spirit felt pained. Was he sick? Was he dying? Was this how an elf's soul departed? "Was it bandits? Marauders?" Deep down, he knew, it was _elves_ that had done this to Yumichika, but he didn't want to risk offending him by assuming it was true.

"No one hurt me," he whispered, "I just fell down a cliffside," he lied smoothly. "I'll be just fine. Elves are resilient… resilient… Worry not for me," Ikkaku blinked at its beautiful eyes which were a color he'd never even _seen_ before. Resilient? Perhaps that had just been another misconception between their warring peoples. Yumichika had called his kind lustful after all.

Ikkaku hissed in frustration, sparks coming through his teeth as he circled around Yumichika a few more times, settling around him, curling him up in his tail like a nest.

"Leave me," Yumichika whispered, eyes closing in exhaustion. Ikkaku sniffed at his short hair, which was cut unevenly like someone had run a sword through all of it at once. Yumichika wept silently, tears slipping down onto Ikkaku's scaled fingers, to his dismay.

"You are leaking, don't cry so," he begged, trying to wrap his body around him, to try to warm him up.

Yumichika smiled one last time, lifting a finger to Ikkaku's cheek, running the back down along it, before falling back to the grass. "Leave me…" Yumichika said on his last breath, no longer responding once again, to Ikkaku's prods or pleading.

Ikkaku got up, broken little body under his arm, not knowing quite how to carry him. Renji had told him not to bring Yumichika back to the camp, but Ikkaku didn't feel quite right leaving him there. He should take him back to the forest, back to the woods, that's what he should do.

He didn't lay him on the ground this time, and put him up in a tree that would hold him securely enough that he wouldn't fall out. Maybe that would help the elf draw his power quicker, and it would keep predators away while it was too weak to cast a protective barrier.

"After tomorrow, I won't be able to come back, Yumichika," he said in a low tone, knowing that Yumichika couldn't hear. "My tribe is on the move, and I may not see you for awhile – but I will be faithful. I won't forget you, that is my promise. Stay safe and alive," he begged, before departing.

When he came back the next day, again, Yumichika was gone, but this time, there was no trace of where he'd been left behind, and Ikkaku was forced to accept that he had died because of what he'd done.

* * *

><p><em>~ Mens Rea ~<em>

* * *

><p>Loyalty or courage in a serpent-creature vain<br>in hearts of stone and ice can never place a proper claim  
>Such a seldom practiced muscle is put through a dangered strain<br>But once it starts to pump and feel, it never stops again


	3. Chapter 3

_Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,  
><em>_A love between their people was a love that could not be,_

_The ignorance between them, broke 'it' beyond recognition.  
><em>_To save 'it' from what he had wrought, the dragon had a mission_

_The years went by, the time did fly, and bitterness it grew,  
><em>_The cast-out prince of elven lands with dragons now was through_

_He was sick and angry; banished, roaming over countrysides,  
><em>_And when he met his mate again, he wanted back his pride._

* * *

><p>. 3 .~ Forest fortuna adiuvat ~. 3 .<p>

* * *

><p>Four years had passed since he'd killed his sweet little mate, and here he was, on his own, roaming through the woods and the outlands between their old mountain and the elven-realm, making his way into unknown territory. He'd left his tribe two years ago, going rogue and slowly traveling back to where the elves lived, not even caring if they would organize a manhunt to kill him while he was alone and helpless.<p>

It was sort of nostalgic, roaming through the thick forest and mountain terrain. He slowly crept towards the edge of the wilderness, coming into the next country. He had stopped along the rocky, boulder-covered field he'd just climbed up, entering some more woods, following along the side of a cliff.

He wondered what happened to elven souls when they died. Renji had said that watching one of elvenkind die is the most heartbreaking thing, like seeing wings picked off of a butterfly. Ikkaku wondered how it would look. Perhaps they slowly fade away, or become part of the forest, getting carried away on the wind.

Surely the beautiful things didn't go straight back to hell like he would, as a child of fire. Maybe Yumichika had become a star, or a tree, or come back as a dryad or a nymph or a flower.

Ikkaku had found a nice cave a few miles off and had scoped out a territory around it, marking trees, clawing them up and knocking them over to tell anything else big and nasty in the area to leave or suffer consequences. He wasn't going to have bears or mountain lions roaming around stealing his kill.

"Stop it, you heathen!" Ikkaku turned around in confusion, wondering what had just brushed up against him.

"Get out of here! Go, and stop wrecking my trees!" shouted a strong voice, and there came another swat. Ikkaku looked around, suddenly seeing a person at the edge of the clearing in the woods, holding a large tree branch and beating him with it, "Shoo! Get awa-" the voice trailed off as the person looked up at him, probably scared that they'd come across a draconem far away from where one should be.

Ikkaku looked into the face, noticing the pointed ears and the dark hair and the gleaming eyes with that unknown color. Suddenly the elf dropped the branch, turned heel, and started running away at top speed, leaving Ikkaku stunned in the dust.

That had been… No, it couldn't be. Even with the short pieces of hair along with the long, and the same eyes and the same… It just couldn't. Could it?

Ikkaku started running after it, overtaking it pretty quickly, cornering it – It didn't skip a beat and climbed up a tree, jumping out of it onto the side of the cliff, clinging there and scrambling upwards.

Ikkaku walked around underneath it a few times, looking up, knowing full well he could climb it easily and nab his mate, who was somehow alive.

"Leave me be," it hissed at him, crouching low on a ledge, spidery hands sparking with blue mist. "I want nothing to do with you, you wretched hellion."

"What are you doing out here?" Ikkaku asked in dismay, "I thought you had died,"

"Nearly, thanks to you," Yumichika glared down at him, "You've set ruin to my life, I'll never forgive you. You stay away from me, or I'll hurt you," he threatened, energy growing tight and focused in his hands, hissing menacingly.

Ikkaku stared up at the little thing incredulously, wondering how it could even take itself seriously when it was so much smaller than him. Its magic probably wouldn't even phase him, just like that huge branch whacking him earlier.

"You… You foolish, silly elf," he growled, starting to climb up to get him. Yumichika's face flashed panic for a second, before turning into a glare again, as he bared his teeth at Ikkaku, hissing, hair bristling as the energy built in his hands. "As if you could even be considered equal to me in a fair fight without your sleight of hand. Your people are cowards who know nothing of battle." Rocks fell where he planted his clawed feet, scaling the mountain wall with ease, getting closer to the forest spirit.

"I have lived longer than you could count backwards on your family tree, dragon's filth!" That insult pissed Ikkaku off, and he swiped at Yumichika's legs with his claws. Yumichika scrambled away from him, sliding down the rock wall without fear, scraping up his legs and back, before grabbing a tree branch to slow his fall.

He landed deftly and began running again, "I have seen the ruin your people cause, the greed!" he shouted at Ikkaku, who was by this point, extremely angry, slits in his face going molten as he readied to fry the little twerp.

Ikkaku chased him and grabbed him by the arm, squeezing tight enough to make it clear to Yumichika that he could crack his fragile bones like twigs. Yumichika grit his teeth, but did not give him the satisfaction of having him beat just yet, "The brutality-" he gasped out in pain as Ikkaku twisted his arm as he tried to pull free, "You are as barbaric as orcs, and about as smart as them as well-"

"Hush up, If it wasn't for your stupid magic cheating, we'd have wiped you out ages ago."

Ikkaku was suddenly shocked as his head turned to one side, shocked enough that he let go of Yumichika's arm. Yumichika had _hit_ him. _Him. In the face._

Yumichika stuck out his tongue without fear, daring him to do something. Ikkaku knew his face looked shocked and lost – How on earth could this elf be so brave as to stand up to him? What audacity… and_ fight._

"Blackhearted fiends," Yumichika whispered, staggering, suddenly going pale, magic glow leaving him completely as he fell to his knees. He looked more frail than before, even thinner, with a gray tint to his skin. He was panting in exhaustion, dragging himself to the roots of a tree, not seeming to care enough about his presence to run away any longer.

"How… How are you," Ikkaku hesitantly sat down near him, not knowing why he'd suddenly stopped being so hostile to his presence. "How are you alive, why-"

Yumichika struggled to sit up with his back straight still with pride, glaring at him with a bit of intrigue, but Ikkaku could still tell that he was dangerously weakened, and that that short chase had taken nearly all of his energy, "I am heir to the throne. I am not allowed to die, no matter what travesty or pain I come upon. I have duty."

Yumichika's skin became grayer as he cast a glamor over his body by spreading his palms and tensing his chest. Ikkaku suddenly realized that he was showing all of his inner pain, past wounds, mental strain and the cost of his anguish. There were scars, so many scars and wounds that he was carrying around and living with. Black craggy crusts were growing out of his heart, sucking the light from Yumichika's eyes. He was dying of grief.

"What? You're not the king – I thought the elven king's name was Byakuya Kuchiki?" He'd only heard Renji hiss the name in ire and spite and piqué a hundred thousand times. "What, are you a bastard prince, then?"

Yumichika hissed, going back to his beautiful outer appearance. "You're one to talk about bastards, coming from an entire race of them," Ikkaku only let that slide because he still felt bad about what he'd done years ago. "… I'm the son of the former king and queen- I am the crown prince," Yumichika said in frustration that Ikkaku hadn't known that and hadn't believed him.

"Well if Byakuya's not your sibling then, why-"

"The reason Byakuya is king is that…" Yumichika sighed, going limp, even more distraught and grey than before. "Do you see my hair?"

"Yeah, why is it short up here, but…" Ikkaku reached out a hand hesitantly, not knowing if Yumichika would allow him to touch him. Yumichika had bangs framing his face, as short as his hair had been when Ikkaku had last seen him, but he'd grown the rest out again.

From what Renji had told him, short hair on an elf is the ultimate mark of shame.

Yumichika's face broke suddenly, and his eyes grew wet as he brought a hand up to them. "I have shamed myself by allowing myself to be captured by the enemy. Don't you see, I have come into disgrace. You have ruined me," he whispered, gritting his teeth in anger as his hands shook where they were over his eyes, "I am not suited to be king, because I have lain down with an infidel. Don't you see what you've done? I've been banished, cast out. Look, look at my shame," he said in anger, taking handfuls of his hair, pointing to where it had been cut.

"I have to always cut it like this so that when my people look at me they know that what I have done is unforgivable. I am spoiled, I am _ruined_ because of you, _look at my shame,_" Yumichika put his face in his hands, trying to compose himself, "I can never be recognized by my family again, I must be erased from history, I have been ostracized. I'll never see my friends again, I am not allowed in my homelands, and I can _never_ be king. _I am exiled._"

"They did it… didn't they," Ikkaku said softly, referencing the time Yumichika had told him he'd fallen down a hill. "They came and… They beat you, and banished you, just so he could take over… You're still the rightful king."

"I know." Yumichika gave him a solemn look, "I know that it's all a conspiracy, but don't you see that isn't the point? I have fallen from grace, I am weak, I am sickly, and I will never be a strong ruler, I will _never be reliable._ I will _never_ be what I should, I will always have this black mark-"

Ikkaku tried to come close to him. "You, you... _I hate you!_" Yumichika shrieked, grabbing his arms, and suddenly Ikkaku gasped, because Yumichika's hands glowed white, fingers piercing his armor and making him bleed the molten fluid in his veins.

"Feel it," Yumichika hissed, face wet with angry, embarrassed tears as he forced Ikkaku to feel some of the horrible anguish and despair and _shame_ that he had to live with. "You are no better than those senselessly violent dragons, you have made me this way,"

Yumichika grinned wickedly as Ikkaku staggered, feeling his energy being sucked out from him. For the first moment in his life, Ikkaku felt afraid, he felt like the prey and not the predator, and perhaps that was because he really had turned into a bully like the dragons, maybe he really didn't understand what it was like to be helpless until this moment.

Yumichika's resolve flickered then, and he seemed to lose all energy, flopping over, panting, struggling to get up and get away from Ikkaku, but only succeeding in lifting his head from the ground, hands pushing uselessly.

Yumichika grew angry and frustrated, crying out of irritation and helplessness and ire. "I hate you," he wept, "I hate you,"

Ikkaku picked him up and Yumichika began to cry harder, "Please… Oh, please," he begged, "Please don't take me again, I can't bear it, I can't bear the shame,"

Ikkaku frowned, carrying Yumichika back to the field so he could lay him in the grass, "Oh please, please have mercy," Yumichika pled, no longer having any energy to escape, completely sick and frail. Ikkaku then noticed how bony he was under his dirty silks, like he hadn't been eating hardly at all.

Yumichika began to spiral into depression, trying to leave his body so he could be spared the pain he was anticipating, and Ikkaku really tried hard to be gentle, wondering if Yumichika was dying. He tried to touch him softly, rubbing his chest where the ribs were sticking out. "You need to eat. Yes, you need to eat," he said a little frantically, looking around to see if he could spot a place where he could maybe kill a deer, or get some elf food, whatever it was.

"Please," Yumichika whispered, becoming feverish and extremely sick and weak, as Ikkaku could tell. "Please…" Yumichika breathed slower and slower, trying to give him directions to where his shelter was, begging him to bring him there so he could do something that Ikkaku couldn't hear.

He tried to pick Yumichika up again, and his head and arms flopped lifelessly. Yumichika whispered in a strained rasp that this wasn't a proper way to hold him, and that he needed to carry him with both arms. When Ikkaku adjusted him accordingly, he feverishly begged for him to not hold him so tight, and to turn his face towards the sky.

Ikkaku turned him over, holding him uncertainly; the way Yumichika had requested he be held reminded him of how he'd seen humans carry their young. But this was all wrong: Yumichika's skin was gray and was now flaking off in large papery pieces, he was hardly breathing, and his head was limp and hung back over the crook of Ikkaku's arm. His body was noticeably lighter and was very very frail, and Ikkaku suddenly understood why Renji said watching an elven death was so heart wrenching.

It was as if Yumichika was fading away right in his arms, spiraling into the weak sickness that he'd been trying to hide earlier. He'd expended all his energy trying to get to someplace safe, and had furthered his condition.

He looked frail and weak and much too pale. He looked dead and Ikkaku hated it, he hated it as he gently carried him through the woods, searching for the item Yumichika had whispered for.

Suddenly, there came a picture frame that he could see lying in the distance. When he came upon it, as he looked at the picture, he could see another world, and in it, Yumichika was smiling.

* * *

><p><em>~ Amantes sun Amentes ~<em>

* * *

><p>The sickness taking hold in him, it pained him as it grew,<br>His crystal heart would heal, or he would not make it through  
>The dragon's desperation and his elven lover's blue,<br>was only counting down the days, and death would come, he knew.


	4. Chapter 4

_Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,_  
><em>A love between their people was a love that could not be,<em>

_The oddest of the odd, against their very natures,_  
><em>Opposite upbringings, always-warring creatures.<em>

* * *

><p><em>. 4 .~Amor Caecus est~. 4 .<em>

* * *

><p>Yumichika had gotten a little better, still frail after drinking from his magic mirror. He sat in Ikkaku's lap, making a daisy chain, at ease with the draconem's presence, as it was bound by elven nature to love what had first taken it despite any sticky circumstances.<p>

Yumichika had been sour and sarcastic towards him for days, still in the dregs of his illness and on the edge of death, but eventually he'd warmed up to him, getting back some of his color, and had started sleeping at night instead of staring at him as if he was waiting for him to try to eat him up.

"Why do you not take me again?" Yumichika asked cautiously, sitting there next to him like a beautiful flower, so beautiful that sometimes Ikkaku expected the wind to just blow him away with it, to take away his beautiful, ethereal, fragile elf and leave him empty.

"I… When I… did that to you… I… I thought maybe we'd have… You know, a child… because it is the dracuni way to cast our children out. I thought our child would be… wonderful," he sighed. "Our parents do not love us and we revile our children… I thought maybe… that things would be different."

Yumichika hummed in interest, weaving the flowers with his delicate fingers. "You are kinder than I expected. I know you didn't really mean to harm me." Ikkaku cringed, knowing that he'd harmed Yumichika to the point that he'd wanted to die.

"I won't ever… I mean… I won't… I won't do that again... I... I won't hurt you, you know that, right?" Yumichika nodded sagely, not looking at him, hair blowing in the wind as his graceful slender fingers slipped the daisy stems close to one another. Ikkaku sincerely hoped that he wasn't going to try to make him wear it, because he didn't like refusing such a beautiful creature when it was so fragile and ill - but all the same, he didn't want to wear the thing, as the smell was intoxicating to the point of lightheadedness to his sensitive nose.

Ikkaku held up the reflective piece of glass in a big clawed hand, staring at it distrustfully - magical items always baffled him and perhaps creeped him out a little, and he didn't like them near him when he slept. Besides that, he'd never seen something like this before. It seemed to be a perfectly crafted, parallel world through the surface of a strange shiny gem. He stuck out his pointed tongue and bared his fangs, hissing and making different faces.

"Elf… Is that… That's really me?"

"Yes," Yumichika said softly, sitting close to him in his lap, occasionally batting at the long spiny tail that was coiling around them. It absently wrapped around his wrist and flicked his side, but then settled down, spiraling around them twice like a large anaconda. "I can't believe your people don't have mirrors…"

Ikkaku continued to look at the glass, golden eyes greedy and gleaming with adoration. He began to turn it different directions, fascinated by his reflection.

"I thought the dracuni loved treasure and things that gleam."

"Yes…" Ikkaku growled resentfully, glaring at his own reflection, picking at his scaly cheek. "I admit that I've never seen this kind of jewel before." Yumichika rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to the daisy chain he was working on, enjoying the soft breeze through his thin pieces of clothing. "It's like your people have learned to trap the surface of the water… but it's so clear..." Ikkaku said slowly in wonder. "It's like a window to… another world... That's really me," He frowned, turning the glass to reflect both his face and Yumichika's. "This is… frightening."

He then scowled, pupils turning into reptilian slits. "I must look monstrous to your fragile elven eyes. What did you think of me when we met?"

Yumichika smiled a little. "I found you ugly out of predisposition. But I've changed my mind." Ikkaku 'mm'ed.

"Yes, but did I frighten you?"

"I was intimidated, I must admit. I was more frightened by the situation than you. Taken into slavery, surrounded by brutes who thrive on violence and greed, and then taking a deal that would likely kill me… I thought that... it would be just one instead of..." Ikkaku winced. Yumichika had really thought they were going to gang rape him and then eat him or something, and so had chosen the lesser of two evils. He hadn't meant to corner him into making a deal, he really hadn't.

Yumichika took an airy little breath, sighing sweetly, settling closer still as he neared the completion of his flower crown. "But I have lived a very long time, and I have seen many things… A draconem is far from the worst."

Ikkaku gently ran his claws through Yumichika's long silky hair, and pressed his mouth onto Yumichika's cheek again. Yumichika sighed, lifting a hand to his face, before resisting the urge to wipe it off. He kept expecting Ikkaku's saliva to burn him or something, or for his teeth to puncture his skin, but Ikkaku was extremely careful, more so than Yumichika remembered. His brush with death must've scared Ikkaku very badly.

Perhaps it was a dracuni thing, because these kisses were very strange; at least Yumichika _assumed_ that they were kisses. He wouldn't actually_ kiss_ his skin, Ikkaku would just keep his mouth open and touch his lips onto him without moving them, similar to how a baby gave a kiss, just less wet. He kept doing it, so Yumichika assumed that was how dracuni kissed each other.

Yumichika sighed when Ikkaku did it again to his head, rumbling an apology for harming him so. The elf put the daisy crown on his own head and leaned up to kiss Ikkaku's lips.

Ikkaku scrambled back in alarm, staring at him with wide eyes. He lifted his hand to his mouth, looking down at it and then back at Yumichika, still looking traumatized.

It was like Yumichika's lips had just pinched him or squeezed him or something, what was that? Was he putting a curse on him or something? Yumichika didn't usually initiate touching willingly, and either allowed contact or shied away from it. "What is… What-" Ikkaku stuttered breathlessly as Yumichika stared at him incredulously.

"It's a kiss," he said calmly, as if that were obvious. Ikkaku looked at him for a little while, before asking how he had done that, like it was some magic trick that he wanted to see repeated.

"Like this," Yumichika then kissed the air, and Ikkaku looked at his mouth intently before asking him to do it again.

Yumichika leaned forward and kissed Ikkaku's open mouth, hand coming up to make him close it. Yumichika crawled onto his big, scaly body, kissing him some more, until Ikkaku's lips started to move awkwardly, still feeling more than kissing, not seeming to understand how Yumichika made that little 'chu' noise.

Yumichika sighed, withdrawing, singing a little to himself, knowing Ikkaku liked his voice no matter how much he complained about 'elvish' racket.

Ikkaku was still feeling his mouth with his hand for a little while, looking curious and confused. "Yumichika? Uh… if you want… I mean, you don't have to, but… you can… you can share my cave… and… And you can even look at my treasure if you want,"

Yumichika just looked at him, before laughing a little, supposing that that was as generous as a dragonling could become with its treasure, "I thought I told you that we can't produce offspring, Ikkaku. We are an abomination of nature. An anomaly."

"No, no, no, I meant _you_, I want you to come be with me, and I can take care of you," Ikkaku bared his teeth and raised his spines to prove that he was worthy enough to protect Yumichika from harm. "I can protect you, see? I can take care of you," he swiped his tail behind him eagerly, getting too close to Yumichika's face, searching for approval.

Yumichika stared at him with raised eyebrows, before smiling. "You are very strange. I didn't expect my exile to go on this way."

"Ex cinere surgemus," Ikkaku lay in the grass next to him, flicking him with his tail, peeking over his arm at the beautiful creature. He was pleased when Yumichika crawled closer to him, and he let Yumichika lay on top of him and bask in the sun.

Yumichika's skin was still pale and milky, but it had lost some of its sick grey pallor, and was almost sparkling a pale gold color. Beautiful.

And when Ikkaku tried to return that thing Yumichika had called a kiss, he saw another world in Yumichika's eyes, and in it, he was smiling.

* * *

><p><em>~ Omnia Vincit Amor ~<em>

* * *

><p>Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,<br>a love between their people was a love that could not be.

These two souls however, from their first forbidden kiss,  
>couldn't think of anything that could possibly be amiss.<p>

Blackened souls in nature's eyes through a mutual respect,  
>the hate of warring races changed to something to protect<p>

Despite all this, what each they felt, became akin to carnal,  
>Knowing it would end in tears, but still Hope springs eternal<p>

* * *

><p>~Fin~<p> 


End file.
